Newsday: Greg Logan picks up where he left off earlier on Ted Nolan vs Garth Snow about the coaches future status with a few of the things Mr Botta touched on in one of his final blogs from a week ago.

Ted Nolan is quoted as saying his relationship with the gm has been the same, that he spoke with Garth Snow and wants to concentrate on coaching and doing the best job he can, that he had no input into signing Doug Weight or Mark Streit and that Garth Snow and the scouting staff made those decisions.

Mr Logan for his part speculates Nolan was not consulted about trading down for Josh Baily, he also speculates to date, Nolan has received no assurances from the organization that he will be the coach and reports Garth Snow declined comment.

NYI Fan Central Comments:Greg Logan and New York Islander coverage in Newsday, two steps forward, five backwards.

Does Mr Logan hold some of this stuff and pick a moment to dump it on the public to hold down anything positive about this team or does his editor demand a team barely being covered have to become a soap opera and force this kind of coverage from him?

Twenty nine other clubs have successful or struggling coaches fired or rehired without these conspiracy theories a running sidebar in their newspapers for months.

Did someone on the Newsday staff see the website article on the new season tickets sold and decide what can we do get something negative stirred up?

You have to read the actual quotes vs the beatwriter speculation here folks. As usual what is the point of this unless Garth Snow or Ted Nolan confirm it?

Worst of all Newsday is contradicting itself with some of this because anyone who reads the paper knows what they reported already and see the mistakes in coverage.

All this comes off as forced by Newsday and designed to stir up negative fan reaction. It would be another thing if Snow and Nolan were quoted and confirmed this speculation because then it would be fair game and I would have no problem with it and if Nolan is fired so be it, but aside from that it's time for Greg Logan to get off the grassy knoll with regard to this until they are quoted and say there are problems.

Almost feels now like we were being set up with all those great updates the last few days.

Worst of all Mr Logan's speculation is not even correct according to the other writer in his own paper in Katie Strang and Mr Logan contradicts himself.

Get those headlines ready for Tsn and the Canadian Press along with all the other papers and fire up the rumor mill.

Newsday: Islanders' Nolan on the hot seatYou know the drill by now.

All I ask my blog readers to do here is read how many mistakes in reporting were made here and then make up your own mind.

Lets take these one at a time:Mr Logan writes " Contacted recently at the hockey camp he runs in Ontario, Nolan was asked if he's confident he will be coaching the Islanders when training camp .begins in mid-September. "I'm confident in my ability to coach," Nolan said. "I know I've got one year left on my contract, and I'm going to make it the best year of my coaching .career. Hopefully, it will get me another one."

NYI Fan Central Comments:Recently? All those quotes were back on May 2nd in the Sault Starr and were blogged about at the time here with comments in that article from Ted Nolan who denied any problems with Garth Snow or Rick DiPietro but was quoted as saying it was difficult coaching under the circumstances of a one year contract begging the question was Mr Logan only finding this out now or saving it as fodder to stir the pot?

According to Mr Logan, Ted Nolan feuded openly with Snow about his role in the decision to part with free-agent goaltender Wade Dubielewicz. When they appeared together later at an Islanders function, the rift was evident as they expressed opposing views on how to improve the power play Snow favored better preparation, and Nolan suggested better players were needed.

NYI Fan Central Comments:Katie Strang covered this event on 6/4 (while Mr Logan was AWOL after creating this huge issue over Dubielewicz) and at the time reported herself that basically it boiled down to a minor misunderstanding in Newsday's Islander blog here begging the question what open feud and if the other Newsday writer did not report any of this on 6/5 where has Greg Logan been for over a month to where he's making all these claims now on 7/13?

The next day on 6/5 Ms Strang wrote another article which was posted on this blog with a full summary of the event here with Garth Snow's comment that we're a tight-knit organization and the situation with confidence in Wade Dubielewicz was not as big of a deal as what people are making it out to be. In addition, the gm said everything is great regarding his relationship with the coach but prefers that situations like this be kept within the four walls. Ted Nolan for his part felt there was no disagreement at all, that he and Snow agreed on the conditioning, that Dubie was hurt in the off season, so he couldn't come in and that sometimes that's construed as lack of confidence, but it was maybe a lack of communication.

This is what Mr Logan writes is an an open feud? Where were you to tell us all this new information Ms Strang did not report on when she was at this team event?

Worst of all in this article one of the first things Mr Logan writes is:To date, Nolan has received no assurances from the organization that he will be the coach. Snow, who declined comment, is emphasizing the development of young players as opposed to acquiring the veterans Nolan prefers.

Funny Mr Logan but you have Garth Snow's quotes on April 10th in your own article here where you asked Garth Snow if there's any reason to believe Nolan won't return, and according to you Snow said, "I don't see any reason. He's our coach."

Here's the full Newsday link which is outdated to this article here which Mr Logan did a blog preview for at the timeherethat is still available.

Nolan and the organization picked up steam in late March when the coach was rebuffed by owner Charles Wang after expressing his desire to receive an extension before the final season of his three-year contract.

NYI Fan Central Comments:Picked up steam? Rebuffed? Mr Logan was the only steam behind this on 3/23 when heasked Ted Nolan about his contract and thought this was such a critical issue we had no game day coverage.

Ted Nolan on 3/23 never expressed any public desire to receive an extension of his contract. He was quoted as having said he plans to fulfill his contract however he has to find out exactly what the plans are and that there have been no discussions, at the time he even said he did not even have an agent.

Did someone hijack Greg Logan's account at Newsday to stir up garbage tonight because most of this is simply not correct?

Of course we had coverage of this back on 3/23 here while Newsday's actual link is outdated here but a few sites have summaries of this article here.

Mr Logan even reports Josh Bailey and Nolan's son Jordan were teammates in the Ontario Hockey League last season yet Nolan wasn't consulted about the pick

NYI Fan Central Comments:Meanwhile here is Josh Bailey's comments in the Windsor Star on June 20th where he says he had already met Ted Nolan a couple of times, but don't really know him here.

Bottom Line:

I'm going to have to start saving the full articles again and keep all the quotes if the level of reporting is going to be this poor before all these links go outdated.

Again, if Snow and Nolan say there is a problem, I would have no issue with any of this, however when a fan like myself just following the articles/quotes can easily point out all these contradictions between writers at Newsday or outright mistakes it's more than fair again to question what is going on at Newsday with Greg Logan?

Now lets get down to business:Are all coaches consulted on free agents, about moving down in the draft or about prospects? Maybe there is a legit problem there and a disconnect based on that and what Mr Botta wrote about or Garth Snow and Ted Nolan have their own way of working.

All organizations work differently and coaches generally do not know prospects. Or some coaches just want to coach what they are given and some general managers want to follow their plan.

I do not know what will happen from here. All I do know is Ted Nolan will be at prospects camp, if things become a problem there could be a change sooner than later but a lot of this stuff has not been fair to the club or it's fans and worst of all some of this Newsday speculation is contradicted by Newsday itself.

15 comments:

Let me get this straight. Botta says there is a problem between Nolan and Snow. Logan says it. But because they deny it, it isn't real. Stop drinking the koolaid dude.

Any fan with two brain cells can see these are two individuals who didn't pick one another to work with and are not on the same page. The problem is Wang's management by committee. The coach should report to the GM, but the Isles have them both reporting to Wang - a man who, while well intentioned, is clueless on how to run a hockey team.

I value your blog as the best place to get up to speed on all things Islander, but frankly you see conspiracies around every corner. If trading out of the top 5 in this year's draft (for a 2 and a 3) wasn't a wake up call to you about this team's poor leadership, nothing will help you see the light. By the way, if Nolan wasn't consulted on that move, he would have every right to be pissed. This team needs skill and speed, and they proceeded to walk away from it again.

This is not about me drinking the kool aid and I have made it very clear I just read the articles like anyone else.

All I do is look at the quoted comments from people involved.

What does it say to you when Newsday own reporters are contradicting themselves? When does it say to you when Greg Logan writes Nolan has been given no assurances but on 4/10 there is Snow telling Mr Logan, Nolan is our coach.

Having written that we all know Snow and Nolan did not choose one another and clearly this committee concept is too much for either to do much beyond their own jobs as coach and gm. Ted Nolan cannot scout players in season and Garth Snow does not know how to coach.

Regarding Mr Wang a lot of clubs are copying his concepts so the idea he is clueless seems overdone, we really have no idea how he runs things. To me it seems like he is involved but he lets his gm and coach do their own thing but was not shy about things not working out last season.

Thank You for the kind words on the blog, however I just call it based on what folks are quoted as saying.

The only conspiracy I see here are contradictions in reporting which is why if you keep up to date on the articles you can go back and see what writers write and what coaches/gm's/players and owners say.

I'm sorry I guess I do not see the singular event of trading down a few spots in a draft as a reflection of poor leadership, when all the experts (who would have ripped the Isles apart) who covered this draft felt the Islander not only did well but very well.

That's not my opinion or my take, that is what professional prospect experts wrote. A lot of them praised or ripped Toronto for taking Luke Schenn.

I'm not sure what standard practice is for coaches at drafts, many are hired days before (like Ted Nolan) are they supposed to be consulted or be spectators? For the most part from what I can gather most coaches are in the background on draft day.

As for not being consulted on free agent signings that seems more of a problem but if the coach only wants to coach maybe he wants out of that as well.

It would be foolish of me to write that things are perfect between coach and gm here given Mr Botta's bog but having written that if Newsday's writers are contradicting themselves about the problems it has to be pointed out to go with at least the two retractions this paper has made so far that hurt this teams perception.

Ted Nolan could be fired tomorrow, but it does not excuse these mistakes in covering our team or the obvious errors I pointed out.

I'm disappointed in you writing something mildly insultng about me instead of taking the tough job which is looking at the contradictions in reporting I have presented here.

If your going to praise Mr Logan or any writer (as I do) you also have to hold those folks accountable when they contradict himself or simply makes mistakes.

This is not about being friendly with Newsday/Mr Logan or the club or about what anyone can do for us as bloggers, it's about calling it straight down the middle with regard to everything whether it's popular or not.

Otherwise why bother?

I post the articles here and remember what was said and my guess there are a lot of folks who recall the comments as well. It does not take a lot of time to research it or report it again for my readers.

If anything I feel an obligation to try and get it right for my readers or at least present it in way so they can make up their own mind.

I would only hope folks like yourself would wish to do the same for them regardless of where the news takes the viewpoint.

I think this coverage is getting ridiculous. Every time it seems that the Isles are going to get good press, someone at Newsday writes an article blasting the franchise. Enough has been written on this issue and there really is not anything new to date on the situation. It's all speculation.

Personally, I think the Isles would be completely wrong and stupid for letting Nolan go. The guy can flat out coach (besides the PP) and the players really like playing for him. I mean I really don't see how you can judge him based on the talent that we had last year.

I do not mind if Newsday or anyone blasts the club, all I ask is they get it right and be fair. If that is the case I have no problem with any of it.

Ted Nolan could be fired tonight but if Katie Strang/Greg Logan are contradicting one anothers earlier reports of what happened at team functions, if the paper is issing retractions and if someone like myself can go back and easily point out these obvious errors/contradictions in coverage I do not think that is fair to our fans and has to be blogged about regardless how things turn out.

If you go by all these reports along with Mr Botta's blog Ted Nolan does have problems to repair with his veterans and has problems with playing prospects and add in his future contract status and what Mr Botta would know is the correct way for a coach to say things there is more than fair reason for some of this speculation and it could be true in the end.

Having written that regardless if you are going to tell the story properly you do not pile on with things that are outright contradictions in your own paper or incorrect.

I, like you, have been sick of this nonsense in Newsday for a while now. We all know this team gets very little respect outside of Long Island, thus our own newspaper should not helping their cause. I had been been ignoring Logan's nonsense until he decided to lie to Josh Bailey about the fans booing him at the draft party. That pushed me over the edge, and I sent a strong email to the paper about it.

I know it probably had nothing to do with my email, but at least there was a couple of weeks of strong reporting from Logan, instead of his op-ed posting as news reports. Now were back to garbage since there were two days without actual news to report leading up to mini-camp.

I would be really interested in seeing Strang take over the beat. Every time Logan goes on vacation, the quality and quantity of reporting goes up.

Newsday should absolutely report what is happening whether it be positive or negative.

All I ask is that it's honest and supports the quotes from the people being written about, no more but no less.

I do not want Newsday to become cheerleaders for the club and hide problems, just reporting what is happening is all I ask but when they make mistakes and their own reporters are contradicting one another that is another matter.

Ct Post/Mr Fornabaio covers the Sound Tigers in Bridgeport and win or lose you never seen me make issue with his journalism, he covers the games, blogs and the quotes support the information.

I think you also misunderstood as well. I am for reporting facts good or bad; that's the job of a reporter. When the pieces become more about speculation and opinion, that to me is a problem.

Also, if a reporter writes an article that makes it seem as if he can't remember or dismisses the quotes he has previously received about a situation without new quotes to back up a claim, that is a little disturbing to me as well. Makes me wonder if the person wants to be a commentator rather than a reporter. Nothing wrong with someone wanting to be a commentator, but you can't be both in the same article.

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